"We simply couldn't stand keeping quiet any longer, John," put in Paul very heatedly. "We thought it a good time to have it out with these fellows for their crookedness." "That's right; they're a bunch of snakes!" supported Bob, his cheeks red with excitement and anger, and his fists doubled menacingly. John turned to the slouching figures of the rival crew. "Do you fellows deny these charges?" he asked quietly. Crossman, Torrey, and Lane looked at their leader, merely shrugging their shoulders. Pete Deveaux took a quick glance in their direction, in turn. Then his face clouded a little darker, and he blurted out to his men: "You confounded babies, why don't you deny it? You know we didn't do anything on purpose to hold these guys back!" "That's right; we sure didn't," said Sam Lane. "Of course not," added Chuck Crossman. "Wouldn't think of it," interjected Oliver Torrey. Our boys were disgusted by the cringing attitude of Pete Deveaux's cronies. Two of them were larger than the Frenchman, yet they seemed to be afraid of him. John saw that nothing was to be gained at this time by continuing the argument, so he pulled his comrades away with this parting and significant warning to their rivals: "Well, Deveaux, we'll let this drop now; but we certainly hope that you will take pains to see that nothing more of so strongly a suspicious character occurs on this trip!" Pete Deveaux snarled back some answer which they could not make out. Our friends returned to the Sky-Bird. In a few minutes Bob, who had climbed on top of the fuselage to test the helium valves, came down and said: "Something new is going on over in our neighbor's yard, fellows. When I was up there I could see right over the natives' heads, and I noticed Chuck Crossman and Pete Deveaux hunting around the field till they found half-a-dozen rocks as big as a football, and they put these in the cabin of the _Clarion_. Wonder what on earth they intend to do with those?" "It's too hard a nut for me to crack," answered John. The others expressed equal inability to discern the purpose of their rivals, and the incident was soon forgotten. But twenty minutes later the familiar roar of a revolving airplane propeller greeted their ears, and they were surprised to observe the _Clarion_ rising up over the field. They watched the machine until it had disappeared in the cloud mists to the east. Then they awoke. All saw the game of their rivals now. By making the Sky-Bird's crew believe they did not intend to leave until noon, the latecomers would be inclined to take their time fitting up for the next hop, and this would give the _Clarion's_ party a chance to make a sudden exit and gain a good lead before the others could get under way.